Pastor Slams Vance’s ‘Pathetic’ Attack on His Faith

United Methodist Church pastor Adam Hamilton has condemned JD Vance’s wild smears against him.

Reverend Hamilton, 62, who is running for Senate in Kansas, appeared on ABC’s This Week with Jonathan Karl on Sunday, following Vance’s claims at a Kansas rally last month that the Democratic minister would “insult your faith and spit on your religion to accrue donations to himself.”

“He really went after you,” Karl summarized, with Hamilton agreeing: “He did.”

Hamilton said that he took Vance’s barbs as ‘a sign of desperation.’

Karl noted: “I mean, he called your views ‘left wing radicalism dressed in the skin suit of our religion.’ Saying of your religion, of you and your beliefs, ‘that is not Christianity.’”

Asked his opinion on Vance’s fighting words, Hamilton judged: “Well, I thought it was a sign of desperation. And I thought it was really sad, it was pathetic.

“He doesn’t know me, doesn’t know anything about my faith. He came in attacking—you know, when did we start attacking people’s faith?”

During a rally in Kansas, Vance claimed that Hamilton’s faith was ‘not Christianity.’

Hamilton, who initially considered running as an Independent and serves a congregation of mixed political allegiances, went on to describe his dedication to his faith before taking a hit at Vance’s more hardline form of Christian values.

“I not only seek to be a follower of Jesus but to practice that in how I treat other people,” he said. “And I just would say, examine my life, examine the way I’ve tried to live, and then I want to see Mr. Vice President.

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“Let’s compare. Let’s compare theology, let’s compare our faith and the impact we’re having on the world. And I just—I don’t even want to compare myself to him—I just want to say I’m doing the best I can as a follower of Jesus Christ every day.”

The author of dozens of religious books concluded: “I thought it was a sad statement that the vice president of the United States would come here and attack the faith of the pastor of the largest church in the state of Kansas, the largest United Methodist church in the country.”

JD Vance’s own faith has been called into question in the past, particularly considering his tension with the head of the Catholic Church.

While 42-year-old Vance was more than happy to throw barbs at someone else’s faith, his own take on Christianity has frequently been called into question.

Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019 at the age of 35, and—between bouts of feuding with the Pope—admitted last year that he wasn’t fully studied up on the Catechism quite yet.

Speaking at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, he shared: “I recognize very much that I am a baby Catholic… If you ever hear me pontificating about the Catholic faith, please recognize it comes from a place of deep belief, but it also comes from a place of not always knowing everything all the time.”

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Katie FrancisReporterGot a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.

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